| Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Sunday, said that while the National Democratic Alliance government was working tirelessly to empower the country, its armed forces and its citizens, on the contrary, the opposition parties empowered only mafia and gangsters for petty personal interests when they were in power.

Addressing huge election rallies in Basti and Deoria to seek votes for the candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its alliance partners Apna Dal and NISHAD Party for the sixth phase of elections, Prime Minister Modi said that for NDA life of every citizen was important and, therefore, Operation Ganga had been launched to bring back thousands of Indian citizens stranded in Ukraine.

Modi said: “The two years of novel coronavirus pandemic and the current global scenario has taught us a lesson that we must build a self-reliant India, which is not possible without empowering its states, especially Uttar Pradesh.  It’s time to rise above caste and petty issues and stand with the country. We are building a defence (manufacturing) corridor in UP for self-reliance in defence products. We will have to keep modernising our forces.”

In a scathing attack on the opposition parties, the prime minister said that these dynasts did not want a developed and self-reliant India as it does not suit their selfish ends.

He remarked: “These dynasts, who have a history of receiving commissions in defence deals and who doubted the valour of our forces when they carried out the Balakot strike, want India to remain dependent on foreign countries for its needs. All that they are interested in is their commissions. They want to keep law in their pockets, money in the coffers of their families and people on their feet.”

“The previous government has given no account of thousands of crores of rupees incurred during the five years of its rule. They shut down sugar mills, leaving sugarcane farmers at the mercy of the government whereas the Yogi Adityanath government has made payments of Rs 1.60 lakh crore to sugarcane farmers, which includes money pending since the Samajwadi Party’s government. The Yogi government has also opened a sugar mill at Munderwa, Pipraich and a fertiliser factory in Gorakhpur. Besides, the Central government has purchased ethanol worth Rs 12,000 crore produced in the sugar mills of UP,” Modi said.

He said that Deoria’s sugarcane farmers were compelled to sell their crops to middlemen during previous governments whereas the focus now was on production of ethanol, which could be mixed with petrol, and setting up of biogas plants as India did not have oil wells. 

Modi said that while weavers of UP were benefiting from the One District One Product Scheme of the Yogi government, the Central government had announced One Station One Product in the current budget, under which special facilities would be created in the railways to take the goods of weavers and artisans to bigger markets.

The prime minister said that with the fifth phase of polling on, the massive victory of Bharatiya Janata Party was guaranteed in UP. People are voting for development as well as a UP free of riots and crime, he remarked.

Taking a dig at Samajwadi Party, the prime minister said that having earned people’s curses for their misdeeds, the party experienced humiliating defeats in 2014 and 2019 parliamentary elections and 2017 UP assembly polls and was struggling to save one seat in 2022 assembly elections.

“The dynasts are confused. They are not realising that the people are united against them in favour of the NDA. It’s a battle between hardcore dynasts and diehard nationalists,” he said.   

“Prior to 2017, encephalitis claimed so many lives of kids in this region, but the governments did nothing. Yogiji raised the issue even when he was an MP and after taking over as chief minister of UP, he undertook several initiatives to protect children from the disease. With Yogiji’s efforts, lives of several children have been saved”, Modi remarked.

He added: “I had the opportunity to inaugurate nine medical colleges, including among others Maharshi Devraha Baba Medical College in Deoria. A total of 18 medical colleges have been opened while work is underway on 20 others. AIIMS, which has been opened in Gorakhpur, is proving to be very useful for people. Poor people have been provided houses, toilets, LPG and electricity connections and health insurance coverage of Rs 5 lakh under the double-engine government. Engineering colleges are also being built where Hindi medium students will be able to pursue their careers of their choice.”

The prime minister pointed out that the people were never the priority of dynasts and therefore they denied them even their basic needs while the NDA government was working tirelessly for their welfare and uplift without discriminating among them.   

“Dynasts are highly selfish people who do not belong to a caste or a society. They keep changing friends with every election. They are untrustworthy,” Modi said, adding that they allowed illegal occupation of properties by mafia and gangsters while the double-engine government of BJP was getting land mapping done with the help of drones in villages to provide property papers to the rightful owners.

The prime minister said that leaders of opposition parties were so irresponsible that they did not mind putting even the lives of people in danger by rumour mongering against the Covid vaccines, because of which the pandemic was under control in India today.

The prime minister was accompanied by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Deoria and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya in Basti who also spoke about the achievements of the government during the last five years.